User blog:Dragon of Darkness Chaos/Anyone Remember the Video Game?
I don't even remember when the Xiaolin Showdown video game came out. Regardless, I still own an operational PS2, and wow, is this game a throw back! Polygonal forms with cell shading and encouraged button mashing when one is stunned. The only thing that has aged well are the backgrounds, which look exactly like the backgrounds on the TV series. I was so happy to see individual blades of long grass in the foreground remain a flat shape of color as my character moved from one side of the screen to the other. Now that I've matured, the game play is fairly easy, and enjoyable. The only down side is that allies are affected by Shen Gong Wu effects, and all other attacks. This is reasonable considering the highly competitive nature of the secret levels and showdowns, however when facing Chameleon or "Mini" Bots, it's quite annoying. The Chameleon Bots are also very disorienting. I often find myself trying to control a Chameleon Bot, only to end up backing myself up into a corner. I also don't like how the character selection is based. I have to choose one character, and stick with him or her for the whole game. If I want to switch characters I have to start the game all over. This is made even more depressing when one finally unlocks Jack Spicer or Chase Young. But getting Chase at the end of the whole game makes things kind of worth it, no? Furthermore, why is everyone dancing?? Sure, it's pretty fun to watch Jack Spicer do the robot, but watching Chase Young do the worm?! I still have nightmares. Right off the bat Dojo and Wuya are making cameos in the foreground, which is actually not distracting or all that annoying. The off screen conversations between Jack and Wuya are another story. At first humorous, the dialogues quickly start to run long and the player misses words through game play explosions, attacks, and Wu activations. Where are the caption controls? The Showdowns themselves are along the same lines as many of the original showdowns from the series. Racing, tag, king of the hill, just to name a few, but then we get these "throw the ball at your goal to get points" games. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG! You're not only up against the Evil player, but you're also up against your fellow monks. It's one on four, and the camera is at a fixed panning angle. I'm over half way through, and if this is supposed to be anything like what our favorite monk's daily lives were like, I applaude them. I am so sick of smashing Jackbots! And while I haven't made it all the way through to the end yet, Chase Young's plan is a bit half-baked. Basically he's been distracting the player with an onslaught of various Jackbots, rock creatures, and even Chi Creatures while he retrieved the Heart of Jong. Because, yes, the whole ultimatum of this game is to defeat Mala Mala (not Jong). I can complain and nit pick every aspect of the game, but over all, this game was a good compilation of all that was Xiaolin Showdown. Let's hope there's a Xiaolin Chronicles game that is mind-blowingly better. Maybe there won't be one, but I can say that I would love to fly around a fixed space as Ping Pong. Category:Blog posts